Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) is of great importance to human tumor studies because of the epidemiologic, virologic and immunologic evidence that it is virus-induced. The Burkitt Tumor Project (BTP) in Accra, Ghana, is an attempt to systematically study a series of BL patients in order to clarify the pathogenesis of the disease and better control it. Current studies are evaluating the possibility of different strains of Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) as the cause of BL, looking at humoral and cell-mediated immunity to EBV and tumor-associated antigens as diagnostic and prognostic tools in BL, and investigating the role of malaria as a cofactor in disease etiology.